Dhangar hunger strike continues; tribal MLAs oppose sharing ST quota

NCP MLA Narhari Zirwal, who comes from the tribal community, has openly opposed any such move and requested the chief minister to call a meeting with ST community leaders

Mumbai: A day after chief minister Eknath Shinde assured members of the Dhangar community that his government will take positive steps to include them in the Scheduled Tribes (ST) category under the existing legal framework, the indefinite hunger strike by six individuals from the community continued on Monday, the eighth day.

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At the same time, leaders from the ST community have asked the government not to touch their quota. Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLA Narhari Zirwal, who comes from the tribal community, has openly opposed any such move and requested the chief minister to call a meeting with ST community leaders. NCP is part of the ruling Mahayuti coalition.

“As our guardians, we want the government to call us and explain whether the demand will impact our reservation because we don’t want to share our quota,” said Zirwal, who represents the tribal-dominated Dindori assembly constituency in Nashik. “The government can provide a separate quota for them, but the insistence to get reservation from our quota is not right.”

The NCP MLA also pointed out that the government started 13 welfare schemes for the Dhangar community and even constituted an independent corporation to which a fund of ₹1,000 crore was granted. “Those who are poor need to be supported, but it does not mean their conditions will improve only by taking what is ours,” he said.

Last year, when the Dhangars had intensified their demand for reservation, it was Zirwal who brought together all the tribal MLAs and pressured the government against taking any decision. This time, he wants the chief minister to have a meeting with tribal leaders. “He will do it because tension is likely to prevail unnecessarily between both the communities,” said Zirwal.

Kiran Lahamte, another tribal MLA from the NCP, also threatened to hold a fierce agitation if the state government chose to accept the Dhangars’ demand. “We will not allow the reservation of the tribal community to be affected,” he said.

Six people from the Dhangar community—Deepak Borate, Yogesh Dharam, Vijay Tamnar, Mauli Harnawal, Ganesh Keskar, and Yashwant Gayke—have been on an indefinite hunger strike in Pandharpur from September 9. To convince them to call off the hunger strike, Shinde held a meeting with Dhangar leaders on Sunday and assured them that positive steps will be taken to fulfill their demand.

Shinde also said that the nine-member study group, led by Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer Sudhakar Shinde, set up last year to look into the Dhangar community’s reservation demand will be directed to submit its report at the earliest. The panel was tasked with studying the laws and methods invoked by three states—Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, and Telangana—to provide reservation to the community.

Meanwhile, the protestors are firm on their stand and have refused to call off their strike. Other Backward Classes (OBC) leader Prakash Shendge and BJP MLC Gopichand Padalkar met the protestors in Pandharpur and requested them to withdraw the agitation, but they did not get a positive response from them.